Generally, when a high intensity discharge (HID) lamp is extinguished (e.g., during a significant power interruption), the lamp typically cannot be re-lit for a considerable period of time after the main power supply voltage is restored. For ceramic metal halide lamps, this time may be up to forty minutes. In order to provide light in the interim, traditional HID lamp/ballast systems are equipped with an auxiliary lighting system to drive a quartz halogen lamp (e.g., 120V) from a tapped ballast winding. There are numerous existing patents related to this type of implementation, one which employs electronic implementation is Erhardt, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,729 B1). This patent provides a general conceptual discussion related to auxiliary lighting solutions, however this patent does not disclose a circuit for implementing the auxiliary lighting system.
When utilizing such auxiliary lighting systems, it is desirable for the auxiliary light to turn off at a consistent HID lamp power level, despite the line voltage. Conventional circuits consider the HID ballast current level in determining when the auxiliary lamp should be deactivated. Since the prevailing line voltage substantially affects the amount of current drawn by the power regulating an HID ballast, the auxiliary lamp generally turns off sooner in customer applications using lower line voltages (e.g., 208V) as compared to otherwise similar customer applications using higher line voltages (e.g., 277V). Thus, it is desirable to for the voltage applied to the auxiliary lamp to remain consistent, even in the presence of transient line voltage disturbances caused by other industrial equipment operating from the same circuit.
What is needed is an auxiliary lighting system that reliably operates when required and that provides a consistent power supply to maintain lighting when the main lighting source is disabled.